Tough
by akamai
Summary: Toph and Smellerbee have a conversation about being tough. Friendship Fic.


**A/N: **This takes place when the gAang and the freedom fighters are in the apartment and a little after Jet gets his memory back. Just pretend that they had just a little down time after that and Toph and Smellerbee had this conversation before they all went looking for the tunnel. xD

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar.

**Tough**

The snack container was passed over to Toph's feet, and upon feeling the broad, wooden bucket with her toes she plunged her small hand in it, rewarding herself with a hand full of nuts. She popped three at a time into her mouth and attempted to crack the shells with her teeth. After a moment of grimacing, she barely succeeded.

"These nuts," Toph said to the person who pushed the container over to her. She spit out the free shell pieces in her mouth and burped. "They're some good nuts."

After curiously staring the earth bender down, her acquaintance agreed. "They're leechee nuts," Smellerbee informed Toph. "They're my favorite—maybe because I've always eaten them with the Freedom Fighters." She wiped a small piece of a shell from her own mouth, smudging her face paint. She didn't care.

"One time, Aang had some other kind that tasted better this," Toph told Smellerbee while earth bending a few pebbles to and fro with her free hand. "Maybe because I stole them from him—yeah, that's right," she said in response to Smellerbee's silence.

"You stole them from him? I thought he was supposed to be the 'almighty Avatar.'" Smellerbee grinned. "You're pretty tough."

"I know. But...I don't know if I can say the same about you."

Smellerbee frowned at the offending comment. Toph looked indifferent and was not even facing her stranger. Although Toph was blind, this annoyed her. But it was Toph's continuation of coolly bending the small peddles that made her irritation even worse. "What are you talking about?" she shot back. "You barely even know me."

Toph laughed. "If you hadn't noticed, you and that quiet guy follow Jet like a dog! Taking orders and stuff from him. He couldn't even get Katara to listen to him—and yet you guys listen to him." Toph stopped bending and laughed harder at the thought. "You shouldn't take crap from anyone, especially a guy like Jet, if you want to be tough in my eyes."

"You have a leader too," Smellerbee snapped. "You follow around the Avatar kid along with Sokka and Katara. I don't think you should be talking."

Toph pointed an accusing finger at the Freedom Fighter's voice while her eyes scanned another direction. More of her fingers pointed at her acquaintance as she listed each of her points, one by one. "First of all, Aang is not my leader. I'm the one who's been working my butt off to teach him earth bending. Second of all, my group works together. We don't even need a leader in the first place. Third of all, if anyone here was my 'leader' I wouldn't be here."

"Hmph." Smellerbee scoffed as she snorted and spit. The spew went straight into the nut container. Toph didn't seem to mind as she smiled.

"So what are you going to do if something happens to that leader of yours?" Toph continued. "When he was brainwashed you two sounded like a mess without him."

Smellerbee blocked out the creeping possibility in her mind of something worse happening to Jet. She faced Toph nonchalantly. "What happens happens. Why do you care?"

"I'm just saying."

"Look. I don't have a problem with him as our leader, and neither does Longshot, but when Jet wasn't with us we worked just fine as a team." Smellerbee held her coveted dagger close to Toph's face and it lightly brushed the other girl's cheek. Toph, unfazed, grinned at the fact the other girl's dagger was in close proximity to her face. "You weren't there, Toph, so you don't fully know if we will be a mess or not without him. Smellerbee removed the dagger from Toph's face and her tone softened, but not any less firm than before. "If Jet leaves us again I know we'll be fine. I just don't need anyone telling me I'm not tough."

Toph shrugged and picked up another nut from the wooden bucket. She popped it into her mouth, while Smellerbee stared, waiting for a reaction.

"I guess you're okay."


End file.
